Damen Shipyards Sharjah has held its official opening ceremony.

The official opening ceremony of Damen Shipyards Sharjah FZE took place on 13th January – the newest shipyard of Albwardy Marine Engineering. In a joint venture between the Damen Shipyards Group and Albwardy Marine Engineering, the core activities at shipyard will continue with Damen newbuilds and Albwardy’s conversions, drydockings and repairs.

Damen Shipyards Sharjah is located in the Sharjah Hamriyah Free Zone, and is a 284,000m2 site, with direct and unrestricted access to the sea. The facility is equipped with a 120 x 26.5m ship-lift with a 5,200 ton capacity, and is connected to eight dry-berths, each of which is 125m in length. It also features a fully-enclosed blasting and painting shed and an under-cover newbuild construction hall. There is also extensive adjacent repair space with 1,200m of quay, with a water depth up to 9m.

Up and running for some time now, the shipyard has the facilities to repair and construct all types of vessels, and has recently delivered tugs, workboats, support vessels, dredgers, landing craft, floating docks, barges and pontoons.

A spokesperson for Damen Shipyards Sharjah said: “The yard can proudly display a healthy order book that presently consists of contracts for two multicats, two shoalbusters, two barges, one aluminium crew boat and not less than ten ASD tugs.”

The co-operation between the two family-owned companies – Damen a Netherlands-based company, and Albwardy headquartered in Fujairah, UAE – is further strengthened with three existing yards in Dubai and Fujairah, which will continue the focus on repairs, conversions and drydockings. They will also undertake rig repairs and conversions for the oil and gas industry.